Like Lightning
by clarasigma
Summary: A normal girl meets a not-so-normal man.


_Tramp (-verb) : a person who travels on foot from place to place, esp. a vagabond living on occasional jobs or gifts of money or food; to tramp the streets. _

"_I am a tramp. Not a prostitute, not any sexually promiscuous woman- just a tramp. I haven't lived in one certain city since I was sixteen, and never have I found a place that felt like home."_

Lights flickered all around her. She took a pull of her cigarette, and wrote down another destination in red ink. The napkin she was using had ripped in many places, making it look old and worn. Her eyes returned to the map, her long thin fingers tracing roads and rivers.

"Hey, gingy!" A man shouted, pounding his fist on the far end of the bar. Hadley could barely hear him as the music pumped on loudly. The bass made the floors shake. The vibrations could be felt in her chest, and her eyes began to water slightly. "Another beer for me and my pals!"

Hadley rested her cigarette between her top and bottom lips and took the caps off of four beer bottles. Besides the man at the counter, she could only see three other men. They were all staring at her with hungry eyes.

"_Taking up this job was some sort of way to prove to myself I could work for money." _

She received the money from the man and watched as he walked away, high-fiving his 'pals' and laughing as if accomplishing some sort of magnificent victory. Hadley snorted and rolled her eyes. She had made it this far without being harassed by any jerks. She wouldn't let today be the day she broke her winning streak.

Although the music was loud and rather good, the young woman had to focus on her maps and notes in order to get sidetracked. It took some time, but toning out the music and screams and dancing bodies was a simple task. But one voice managed to wean its way between the cracks. Hadley's head shot up instantly at the abstract sound.

"I said, those blokes are rather obnoxious, aren't they? I saw that one looking down your shirt as you bent over." Hadley said nothing in response. "Hello?"

"What'll you have?" She asked. It took her entire will to not smile and bat her eyelashes at him seductively. He grinned a most gorgeous grin and winked a most lovely eye at her. Hadley's cheeks went red in bashfulness.

"_Everything seemed to flip topsy-turvy after I even set eyes on him. He told me he only drank water, and so I gave him a tall glass of sparkling water with a small umbrella in it. It only seemed appropriate. He was wearing a full suit and tie, and boy, did he seem like he needed a break."_

The man reached across the counter to receive his beverage, and touched Hadley's hand for an instant. In that instant, Hadley felt an eternity of sadness and happiness. In this man, Hadley saw something that she had never seen before. She wanted to leap across the counter and just feel his face, and feel his human warmth. But what Hadley saw wasn't human- it was _different_. She could feel the radiance of his heartbeats, because of course, there were two. It was almost like she could see the solid gold beneath the fleshy exterior.

"Only water?" Hadley asked playfully. She allowed his hand to rest on hers for a bit, before she reached back and put her cigarette butt in an ashtray. The man chuckled, sipping the water delightfully.

"Yes, only water. The ol' TARDIS wouldn't appreciate my driving her like a loon."

"Tardis?" She questioned. Never in all of her life had she heard anybody call their car a Tardis. And let me tell you, she had been in quite a few cars.

He grinned mischievously. A glint sparked up in his eyes. He leaned toward her person slowly. "What year is this?" He almost whispered. The song changed in to a more mellow beat, so Hadley could hear him perfectly.

"2010, what year is it from where you're from?" She retorted sarcastically. The man jumped up like a lightning bolt, and almost hopped over the counter. Hadley stepped back in shock.

"Come with me, now." He demanded. Hadley rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"My shift's not over for another ten minutes."

"_But almost like that, the devil waltzed in and took charge. My fellow worker Elaine walked in and stood beside me behind the bar. I took my paycheque from her hands and smiled gratefully. I resigned within those two seconds and never set foot in that club again. I grabbed anything I could get my hands on, really. My knapsack, my maps, everything and left with this complete stranger. At the time, I was desperate for a ride. It was beginning to get colder outside, and the cold weather wasn't very good for tramps like me."_

The suit-clad, tie-wearing stranger dragged her by her wrist toward the back of the building. The distance between them was unbearable. She wanted to touch him everywhere, taste his taste, feel his feel. Hadley didn't even try to fight off this stranger. It didn't seem wrong, but it didn't exactly seem right either.

"You can call me Doctor, or Ten. Either or would be fine. You have… the most beautiful eyes." With this, he spun her around and nearly bonked noses with her. He stared in to her brown orbs like some sort of curious, blood-thirsty thing. "Name. What's your name?"

"H-Hadley." She replied.

"Of course it is." The Doctor replied. He took Hadley's small hand in his, and opened the door to an ordinary-looking police box. But it seemed so ordinary, it was unorthodox. He wrapped an arm around her waist and supported Hadley's frame. She walked in with shaky legs, gasping.

"_The box was so large on the inside, I almost wanted to faint. It was the most beautiful thing in the world. I was a tramp, and always would be. But now, I was a tramp of a different measure."_


End file.
